No Man’s Sky gets prehistoric with Relics expansion

The latest update for No Man’s Sky is going back in time. Called Relics, the expansion launches today and introduces paleontology and archaeology elements to the sci-fi exploration game; players can now unearth the bones of alien creatures, piece them together, and even erect museums.

Perhaps most interesting is that players will be able to assemble the ancient creatures however they’d like. Here’s how developer Hello Games explains it:

There is a truly huge variety of procedural prehistoric bones, in all shapes and sizes, to excavate and collect. It’s up to you how you reassemble them and there’s a lot of fun to be had building ever-more outrageous skeletons to put on display in your bases-turned-museums or share with your fellow Travellers.

Fossils out there to be discovered vary hugely in rarity, so you never quite know what you’re going to unearth. There’s a real buzz when you find something truly rare. The most uncommon finds hold huge value. For those trying desperately to finish their collection, we introduced a specialist who can be bartered with at the Space Station.

Naturally, since this is No Man’s Sky, there’s also an element of danger. Certain bones and underground treasures will be guarded by golem-like creatures and a giant new type of worm.

As with all of the game’s major updates, Relics is free to download, and it joins an increasingly massive list of new content for the game since its launch in 2016. Most recently, that has included big changes to the game’s graphics, the addition of trillions of new planets, and just as important: fishing.